Cold-water-swimming expert and local swim coach Sarah Walsh is a firm believer in the transformative power of submerging yourself in the sea as often as possible.
Having been a staunch advocate of cold-water dipping for knocking on a decade, Sarah’s consistently championed the vast mental and physical health benefits. But she takes the safety side of things extremely seriously, too.
Now the proud owner of her very own swimming business, Cornish Kelpie, Sarah’s adventurous spirit and infectious energy was just what I needed on a Friday morning in early May. We took to the roof terrace at Alcatraz for coffee and a chat before enjoying an amble down to Chapel Rock.
Pinch me: I have the best job ever.
I kicked off our chat by asking what drew Sarah here to Perranporth in the first place. Given that we were overlooking Perranporth’s magnificent three-mile beach, a broad sweep of the arms and a “This!” was the unsurprisingly succinct response. So I asked for her most favourite thing about living here: “Oh, I think it’s probably the community, the people. And walking along the street, people saying hello, honking horns and waving. I love that. It’s really special, it’s a lovely community and the friendships forged from that have been incredible. Of all ages, not just my age. I have friends in their 20s, friends in their 80s, everything in between and I love that. From my female friendships’ point of view, it’s like a wise woman’s club. So it’s the community, the beach and obviously the sea pool for swimming. We’re so lucky to live here.”
I wanted to know more about what led Sarah into her cold-water swimming adventure: “So, a long time ago, after I’d had Aggie [her youngest daughter] I was 45 and I just felt really rotten. I saw a TV programme about the menopause and they were covering all these fantastic things about what we can do as women to make ourselves fitter, healthier, stronger and conquer the menopause. There was a lady talking about cold-water swimming. I thought ‘Right, this is it, I’ve got to do it’.
“Then I was at a children’s birthday party and I said to some friends there, ‘I really want to start swimming in the sea’. There were only seven of us at the start – seven brave warriors – and we walked down in jeans, T-shirts, fluffy socks and big jackets. Not prepared really at all! And we went in the sea. And it was the best thing I ever did. It was invigorating, life affirming. There was something so special in us all walking down together, it was quite ceremonial.
“And so we had seven at the beginning of the week, 15 by the end of the week and then 500 people by the end of the month. It was bonkers, it just took off! Then it turned quite quickly into ‘If I’m doing this, I’ve got to be safe about it’, so I started reading papers by Professor Mike Tipton [Professor of Human & Applied Physiology at the Extreme Environments Laboratory, School of Sport, Health & Exercise Science at the University of Portsmouth], who has become a good friend of mine. I worked with him, doing research on what happens to our bodies when we go into cold water, how to do it safely. And I worked with lovely Anita Fleet from the Perranporth Surf Lifesaving Club, so it was a huge community effort. Oh, and I’ve worked with Ellie Woodward talking about rips [Ellie holds a PhD in rip currents from the University of Plymouth]. I wanted people to have a good understanding of what we were doing and then pass that on, as well.”
The swimming adventure continued and Sarah’s groups grew and grew, with communities springing up all over Cornwall, asking one another for advice, recommending good swim spots, talking tides, and sharing general sea-safety knowledge.
“It grew and grew until it got to the point where I was doing so much research, I decided it made sense for me to rethink my career as a primary school teacher and retrain as an open-water swim coach. So now I try to swim every day, then I run two or three adventure swims throughout the week, and I do a swim with a boat company on the Helford. We go up and down the river, it’s so unique. The front of the boat drops down, so we can access really remote beaches and swim from cove to cove. It’s incredible. So yeah, basically, I’ve built a whole life around cold-water swimming!”
Bringing things back around to Perran and what we love about it, I asked Sarah what she’d do if she had a totally open day in Perranporth. No work, no childcare, just a free day. We know how it starts: “Yeah, a sea swim!”
And then? “Oh my gosh, the most magic day would be a nice little wave, incoming tide and bodysurfing. That’d be perfect. Then a picnic on the beach, watching the sunset. Just spend all day in the sea and on the beach. We did that on summer solstice a couple of years ago and it got to 10.30pm and it was still light. There’s nothing better than being in the sea when the sun’s setting. Swimming, playing rounders, chatting, mucking about on the beach. That would be my perfect, perfect day.”
Sarah’s swim company, Cornish Kelpie, runs regular coaching, adventures and experiences all around Cornwall and they’re open to everyone. cornishkelpie.co.uk